Background

The novel is partly an autobiographical allegory based on London’s conversion from teenage hoodlum to married, middle-class writer.[1] In writing it, he was influenced by the ideas of Herbert Spencer, Karl Marx, and Friedrich Nietzsche.[1] Conditions in the US also influenced the story.[1]

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London makes frequent use of several kinds of figurative language. Consider the novel's first sentence "Dark spruce forest frowned on either side the frozen waterway." The personofication here is strong linging reader with the natural elements.